Polene and her children, ages 10 and 5, live in a tent community in Port-au-Prince. Meant for temporary housing after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010, tent cities are still common throughout the city. Polene’s family and neighbors live in harsh conditions without clean water or toilets, and the scrap metal structures are what they call home.

A thirty-minute drive from the nearest city, across a rough terrain, and through a river (four times), lies the rural and isolated community of Jolitrou. Before International Child Care, locals had to walk 4 hours each way to the nearest hospital and once there, many times were told to come back another day or denied health care completely. Once ICC partnered with the community to create a clinic, the infant mortality rate dropped significantly and many lives were saved.

When Gregory Adrien came to Grace Children’s Hospital in 1998, severely malnourished and crippled by Tuberculosis, it’s no wonder he quickly learned to regard the staff and other children at Grace as his family. Now, almost 20 years later, he has a family of his own.

When Grace Children’s Hospital first started in 1967, it was as a small Tuberculosis clinic in Haiti with a goal of treating and healing 100 children. Now in its 50th year, the hospital is celebrating the accomplishments of treating not 100 children, but well more than 100,000 children, while also educating the public about how the battle against Tuberculosis is not over.

When Rev. June Franck of First United Methodist Church of McKinney, TX heard about Grace Children’s Hospital’s 50th anniversary, she felt called to help the children of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Read more to discover her 50for50 idea.

Two years ago, Yadiel Collado’s life consisted of this: he spent most of his days lying on a table or in his bed. Occasionally he would look at something as he moved it with his hand, but his eyesight was scattered. He never spoke. Read on to see how he is doing now.

When Helen Waterson passed away at the end of 2016, she made sure that her and her late husband’s love and devotion for ICC and Grace Children’s Hospital would be carried on. Alongside their children, she left part of her will to ICC, showing the priority ICC has had in their lives since the ‘60s. And all of her children agreed: this is how it should be.

When we look back to the beginnings of Grace Children’s Hospital, there are so many who helped make James and Virginia’s vision possible. Hilda and Napoleon Etienne were definitely two of them. Caring, loving, and devoted to their community, they played a significant role in the beginnings of the hospital in the 1960s.

We invite you to be humbled this year, perhaps step out of your comfort zones, and experience the cultures of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on a Mission Education Encounter Team. Taking a “mission trip” with International Child Care will seem very different from trips you may have gone on in the past.

“The catastrophe slowed our progress,” said Dr. Ronnie Derius, medical director at the hospital. “Instead of growing the hospital to move forward, we are obliged to think about rebuilding and repairing instead.”

Thanks to all of your generous support over this past year, International Child Care has been able to provide hope and health for thousands of children and families in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We don’t need to show every life saved for you to know that each one is valuable, but here are just 5 examples of people your support and dollars have helped this year.

Ronaldo was admitted to the hospital with a rapid heart condition and respiratory problems. Before coming to Grace, he was sick for two years, said his mother Marleiene. “I went to other hospitals, but we didn’t get any results.”